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Kevin Adcock Named Outstanding Smithville Firefighter of the Year

February 2, 2008

by:

Dwayne Page

The Most Outstanding Smithville Firefighter of the Year is Kevin Adcock.

Adcock received special recognition for this honor during an awards dinner held Friday night for members of the Smithville Volunteer Fire Department. The dinner was held at the Christian Fellowship Center of the Smithville First United Methodist Church.

Robert Eller, a member of the department for 62 years, was awarded for having attended the most calls during 2007.

Fire Chief Charlie Parker says both Adcock and Eller are most deserving of these special honors. "We recognized Mr. Eller for most calls attended this past year which includes total calls, training, workings, meetings, etc. He responded to the most calls out of all the firemen for everything, about 172 calls. So we recognized him for that."

"The Outstanding Firefighter of the Year is voted on by the other firemen. Each firefighter voted for a fellow firemen that he or she thought did an outstanding or exceptional job. That's really tough because they (firefighters) think everybody does a good job so it's kind of hard to get that one (award). Kevin Adcock does a fantastic job. He does all of our web site and computer work and he does all of our reporting to the state. He puts in many, many hours other than actual fire calls just keeping up with stuff so he is well deserving of that award."

All members of the department were recognized for their years of service including;

Chief Parker reflected on the accomplishments of the past year. "2007 was a good year for us. We are thankful that we had a year with no injuries. No firefighter was injured in any of the calls that we had and that's always a plus to not have any of those. Our number one thing is our fire hall project, which is well underway. They have just completed the first floor and now they are starting on the second floor of it. This has been a project that has been many years in coming and we owe a lot of gratitude to our current and former mayor and aldermen who have helped to get us where we are with it. The Smithville First United Methodist Church was a big asset to us. They had some fund raisers for us and helped us in purchasing some dress blue uniforms so all of our firefighters from the officers all the way down to the rookies now have dress blue uniforms. We got to wear them in the Christmas parade. It was the first time we all got to wear them. Those are for special occasions. We're excited to have the uniforms which help make us look more professional."